


are you strong enough to stand protecting both your heart and mine?

by gayapplewhite



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Enchanted Sleep, F/F, Most Of These Characters Are Just Mentioned - Freeform, Set During Dragon Games, Written to Explain Why Briar Wasn't In The Dragon Games Because She Would've Loved Them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 15:05:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7272955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayapplewhite/pseuds/gayapplewhite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“the day mira shards shows up, faybelle knows exactly who she is. how could she not? the evil queen has been her role model since she was only a tiny fairy, of course she would recognize her. faybelle knows everyone at school is in danger, everyone she cares about could be hurt (duchess could be hurt, <i>briar</i> could be hurt).”</p><p>or; where briar was during dragon games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	are you strong enough to stand protecting both your heart and mine?

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to @dpdclaryfray on tumblr, this was originally their idea and they let me take it and run with it!

the day mira shards shows up, faybelle knows exactly who she is. how could she not? the evil queen has been her role model since she was only a tiny fairy, of course she would recognize her. faybelle knows everyone at school is in danger, everyone she cares about could be hurt (duchess could be hurt, _briar_ could be hurt). and so she gets close to mira, helping her in all her classes, and one day, mira is sitting on her bed, studying, when she suddenly announces.  
“i’m here to take over the world.”  
“i know,” faybelle says. “me too.”  
“no,” mira corrects her. “i mean now.”  
“oh.” faybelle says. “can i help?”  
mira smirks scarily, and in it, faybelle sees every reflection of her own mother’s smile, the smile that she gave when she punished faybelle (“for her own good,” she’d said). “of course, my dear,” she replies.  


//

faybelle is supposed to meet with briar at five at the hocus cafe. she sends a quick text asking if they can meet in briar’s room instead. briar agrees, and at five, faybelle’s at the door to briar’s room.  
briar opens it carefully. “faybelle, hi!” she says, pulling her in for a hug. briar is so good and happy and full of life that faybelle is crushed by what she’s about to do.  
“hey, briar,” faybelle replies, wandering into the room and sitting down on briar’s bed. briar takes a seat beside her and slips her hand onto faybelle’s leg.  
“so what’s up with the new girl? you’ve been hanging out with her a lot,” briar asks, eyebrows furrowed in concern.  
“please don’t ask,” faybelle begs her. their faces are so close now, their mouths are so close, and faybelle can feel briar’s breath on her cheek. the closeness between them should make things so easy, and instead it makes it so hard. faybelle closes her eyes and leans in, holding briar’s face in her hands. their lips meet and briar’s breathless. faybelle lets go and briar pulls away.  
“ _wow_ ,” she sighs. “that was, uh,” and then faybelle can see briar’s face fall slack and her eyes are full of hurt because faybelle has done the one thing she never wanted to do, made briar into the one person she never wanted to be. briar falls back gently on the bed and she’s asleep for eternity or until faybelle decides to wake her up. looking at the sleeping form of her best friend, her lover, her fremeny-with-benefits ( _what are they to each other?_ ) faybelle can’t help but to apologize.  
“i’m so sorry,” she whispers. “i wanted to keep you safe. i promise i’ll wake you up after.”  


//

when mira is revealed to be the evil queen, faybelle is not surprised. neither is apple, which does surprise her. who knew the good girl of the school could recognize her rival’s evil mother in disguise? snow white and the evil queen bring back the dragon games, and there’s an ache in faybelle’s heart that reminds her of how much briar would’ve loved this sport. she blinks it away, and follows the evil queen around, professing her admiration and helping her with every little chore. maybe if the evil queen likes her, when she massacres the school, faybelle can make sure briar’s safe. because that’s all that matters, right?  


//

faybelle does everything the evil queen asks of her, every little thing, and when raven (who is really a terrible actor) returns to her mother and lies and smiles and says “sure, i’d love to take over the world with you, mom,” faybelle is outraged. the evil queen forgets about faybelle, forgets about the hopes faybelle had for saving briar and she can’t take it anymore.  
she wants to yell at the evil queen, tell her “i did all this for you, don’t you even care? i did everything for you, i did it all for briar, i’ll help you if you won’t hurt her, please don’t hurt her, please,” but she knows the better option is to leave her and join the rebelling students. yelling at her would only make her mad, and if she’s mad, who knows what she might do?  


//

but before she flies off into the night to help save everyone, she visits briar. briar is still sleeping on the room faybelle left her in (not even the castle catching on fire and flying woke her, and faybelle worries, what if she doesn’t wake up when she kisses her?) faybelle shakes her head, pressing those thoughts aside, and kisses briar lightly on her forehead.  
“i will come back for you,” she murmurs. “don’t you fall asleep on me.” and faybelle laughs, a half-sob half-self-amused chuckle laugh at their inside joke and places her hand on briar’s and hopes that when the day comes she will wake up.  


//

faybelle opens the booking glass and helps and watches darling and apple’s awkward gentle touches and smirks to herself, because, boy, does she know what that feels like. when they offer her a place riding on a dragon with the rest of them, she smiles and declines.  
“not that i wouldn’t love to help you all kick the evil queen’s ass, i really have somewhere else to be.” and darling thanks her for helping again anyway and faybelle flies back into the castle and sits beside briar.  
“if we’re going to die, we’re going to die together,” faybelle whispers, taking one of briar’s cold hands and placing it in between her own. and so faybelle lays there, beside briar, and waits for the end of the world.  


//

when she gets raven’s message that the evil queen is gone, that she’s defeated, that she’s in the mirror, that they’re safe, faybelle almost cheers in excitement. then she leans over to briar, and gives her a quick peck on the lips (briar always said she didn’t want some random dude making out with her when she was almost kinda sorta dead) and holds her breath. briar doesn’t move. she doesn’t stir. hot tears rise up between her eyes. briar’s gone, she’s dead, and it’s all your fault, she thinks to herself. faybelle holds her breath and kisses her again, and briar blinks, beginning to sit up and yawning gently.  
“faybelle?” she asks.  
“yes?” faybelle replies.  
“what the fuck?” briar says quietly. “you put me to sleep, and you did it on purpose. you knew i didn’t want that. has it been a hundred years? is everyone else dead?”  
faybelle sighs. “i know you didn’t, i know, and i’m so sorry, but the new girl was the evil queen in disguise and she wanted to take over the world and all i ever wanted was for you not to get hurt and i put you to sleep to keep you safe and i’m so sorry.” she glances down. “and if you can’t forgive me, than that’s okay too.”  
faybelle jumps a little when briar places her hand on top of hers. “no, it’s okay. is everyone alright? did she succeed?”  
“no, everyone’s fine. apple almost died, but we’re all good. she’s back in the mirror now.”  
“good.” briar says. “and…and i think i can forgive you.” faybelle can’t keep the smile off her face as she looks up at briar. “but if you ever do it again, i’m going to wake up and kick your ass back to when my mom was sleeping beauty. got it?”  
faybelle smiles again. “got it,” she whispers.  
“faybelle?” briar asks.  
“yes?” faybelle responds, a pang of fear flashing through her heart.  
“i never got to do this,” briar whispers, and leans into faybelle and suddenly they’re kissing and faybelle doesn’t know what to do so she’s kissing back and everything is good and right and faybelle finally feels happy.  
when briar pulls away, faybelle puts her head on briar’s shoulder. “that was nice,” she says.  
“mm,” briar agrees, grabbing faybelle’s hand in her own and looking out the window towards the sunset.  
“love you,” faybelle says impulsively. she’s not sure why it’s impulsive, considering she just woke briar from a cursed sleep that was only supposed to end with true loves kiss.  
“i know,” briar replies softly. “i love you too.”


End file.
